One note before I start. The ladies of the Scarlet Knights were bumped out of the State finals yesterday. Although my own personal feeling is that they got a raw deal (the reffing was atrocious), we won't dwell on that. These great fencers will take it in stride, I know, and will go on to do good things, both on and off the strip.
Monday was an early one for us. The anchor was up at 6:55 AM and we got moving. I should note that this anchorage was not totally picked at random. It was an anchorage used back in April 2015 when Bob was on a trip with his father, and knew it to be a good spot. So it was selected for both sentimental and practical reasons.
Breakfast was served underway (scrambled eggs mixed with ham, tomato, and cheese). We usually do pretty good for food on these trips, and the gimbal on the stove makes it possible to cook underway (provided you are not in really high seas). While lunch usually winds up being sandwiches, a hot meal is always nice.
We had good winds, and got a bit of nice sailing in just using the genoa (a rather large jib sail that overlaps the main). One of the nice things about the Black Dog that I have come to realize is that when you are in the ICW, and may need to move from sail to power frequently, the genoa is a nice sail to have because in a good wind it will move you along nicely on its own.
We made good time and were at anchor in Edgewater Park by three in the afternoon. One thing woth noting was that we motored from our anchorage site through Wappoo Cut (past Bob's house) and back, and coming back the current was very strong against us. Bob commented that is was the strongest he has ever seen it, and he ought to know because he lives right there.
We had previously reached to Bob's nephew, Conor, do arrange meeting for dinner. Conor, his wife Emily, and Duke (their dog) motored out for dinner and drinks. Bob grilled chicken on a portable grill used on the boat, and a good time was had by all. There was a little bit of trouble getting Duke back on to Conor's boat, and for a moment Bob and I thought we might have an overnight guest. But it all got sorted, and they headed back.
We cleaned up from dinner and Bob read selections aloud from "The Art of Coarse Sailing" and we had a good laugh at the stories. We chatted into the night discussing future voyages of the Black Dog. We turned in with a plan to be up at 7 AM.
It was a relatively peaceful night. We awoke a couple of times during the night to what we came to believe was the noise of the anchor chain stretching out a bit, but we were felling good and ready at 7 AM. Bob made banana pancakes for breakfast, and we started cleaning the boat a bit to give us a jump on things before we docked.
We weighed anchor at 8:45 in order to be in time for a 9:30 opening of the Wappoo Cut Bridge. That drawbridge will not open between 6:30 AM and 9:30 AM on weekdays due to rush hour traffic. We made the bridge in good time, 20 minutes before it opened. We were dockside by 10 AM. We finished up cleaning the boat and offloaded stores. The feeling is that we left the boat better than we found her. Another good trip on the books.
Just as an epilogue to the adventure, Ronda's friend Erin was performing her first improv show at Theater 99 downtown Charleston with the members of an improv workshop she had taken. Everyone did a great job, and we all enjoyed the show!
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